Definition

As usual, Wikipedia does a crappy job at explaining: Digital marketing is an umbrella term for the targeted, measurable and interactive marketing of products or services using…

Ugh!

I want an easy definition that I can remember! Here’s one: Digital marketing is any form of marketing products or services that involves electronic devices.

That’s the reason it has been around for decades (because electronics have) and why it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with content marketing, Google ads, social media or retargeting.

Digital marketing can be done both online and offline.

And, both kinds matter for a well-rounded digital marketing strategy.

Why digital marketing matters

Remember billboards?

I do.

As a young kid in California, my experiences from the back seat of our car mostly alternated between: “Mom, when are we there?” and “Uh, look, McDonalds, can we go?”, whenever one of those 10 foot billboards popped up on the side of the road.

Growing up with Indian parents, the answer to both of those would, most times, be the same: “Not yet.”

Sometimes, big brands would even start a billboard war, like this one between Audi and BMW, which got quite a few laughs:

Overview

The 2 main pillars of digital marketing are online marketing and offline marketing. That said, since I’ll talk about online marketing in a separate guide, I’ll only mention the different areas of online marketing here, for the sake of completeness.

TV ads are unspecific. In a world of search engines, retargeting, social media and email marketing, we are so used to being marketed around products we already care about, that we blatantly ignore everything that’s not remotely relevant to us.

If your commercial makes it to the blacklist (commercials the network decides can’t be shown on TV), the viral effect is usually even stronger, like this one, from Carl’s Junior, that caused a lot of noise this year:

In 2020, there will be as much money spent on mobile ads as there is now spent on TV advertising. How’s that for fast growth?

But, before we look at the type of phone marketing that you can do for smartphone users with an internet connection, let’s look at some offline ways to market your products.

There are 2 apps that are grossly underestimated, yet they are on every phone, smart or not:

Calling and texting.

Cold calling is the act of calling a person with no prior contact and trying to sell them something.

While at roughly 3 sales per day (marketers call 52 people a day, on average, with about 17 calls until they find a buyer), it doesn’t have the scalability of social media or email, it’s still a valid approach to marketing.

The tactic works, but doesn’t scale very well when selling to end customers (B2C) and making contact before trying to sell helps to close the deal (especially in B2B, which is all about connections).

What works better is marketing via texting, an “app” that is also available on each and every single phone out there.

Using text reminders as customer service can also enhance your mobile marketing, like Walmart does. They alert customers when their prescription is ready for pickup. To date, they’ve sent over 1 billion text reminders.

Another option is to create a loyalty program, where your customers can trade points collected in an app or when paying via their phone. Only 13% of retailers have one, so it’s an option that can help you to stand out.

Since 98% of all text messages are opened, and 90% of them are opened within 3 minutes of arrival, text messages are also a great opportunity to promote a giveaway that you’re doing.

Using a tool, like Heyo, you can easily create a giveaway that’s optimized for mobile and works well on Facebook and other social media platforms, like this one:

Back in 2011, only about 6% of mobile phone users in the US had scanned a QR code, all year. And, by 2012, 97% of consumers didn’t even know what a QR code was.

While I can’t be 100% sure about why they weren’t the big hit some wanted them to be, I suspect it’s because the system was too complex.

To scan a QR code you’d always have to download a specific app, like Barcoo.

Then, the corresponding content would open within the app, which was often not optimized for mobile.

Big brands also didn’t respect the context of QR codes, putting them in very unfortunate places, like subway stations with no cell reception or on TV commercials, where they were only visible for a few seconds.

So, don’t waste your time with QR codes, your time and money is best spent elsewhere.

Conclusion

That’s the scoop on digital marketing. As you can see, the internet is, by far, not the only place for marketers to gather success, even today.

Of course, no one can afford to miss out on the opportunities of the web and, eventually, every marketer will have to master online marketing.

But, employing a few of these offline marketing tactics can help you to not put all of your eggs into one basket and diversify your lead generation beyond social media, content marketing and the like.

Here’s the breakdown of digital marketing again:

Online marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Search engine marketing (SEM)

Content marketing

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)

Affiliate marketing

Email marketing

Offline marketing

Enhanced offline marketing

Electronic billboards

Digital product demos

Digital product samples

Radio marketing

Radio commercials

Show sponsoring

TV marketing

TV commercials

Tele-shopping

Super Bowl commercials

Phone marketing

Cold calling

Text message marketing (giveaways, coupons, loyalty programs)

QR codes

I hope this guide expanded your view a bit and showed you that digital marketing is more than Facebook ads and social media blasts.

Will you use any of these tactics in your business?

Which of these do you remember from back in the day. Have I missed any?

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About Neil Patel

He is a New York Times best selling author. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. He was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations.